Let’s face it, it’s time to replace that outdated home theater in a box you purchased in 2006. Not only is your Circuit City extended warranty hopelessly useless, but upscaling DVD players just don’t cut it any more. It’s time to get a real home theater system. Continue reading
Tech
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Note: This article was written by Madfall with very minor edits provided by LeftCoastLady. Madfall was shy about submitting it under his own moniker.
Action games are like any other drug, you start off with something simple and seemingly harmless — in my case it was “Tomb Raider 2” — and in no time at all you’re playing something like “Silent Hill 2,” a product so terrifying that it actually made me whimper aloud in more than one place.
I always had a passing interest in games growing up but being as poor as a church mouse I never had an Atari, NES, SNES or any of the consoles that came before the Playstation — the Playstation was my downfall.
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Once upon a time, in a land called Twitter, the residents of this incredibly chaotic, yet endlessly fascinating land, contributed their words of wisdom – all in 140 characters or less, for those of us plebes for our entertainment.
Some sort of wedding appears to have occurred, resulting in an overwhelming number of droplets of wisdom from the Twitterians. The lovely Rachael Maddow attended the NRA convention, Jesse Tyler Ferguson contemplates gender perception in the media, Seth Meyers’ mocking spread far and wide, and several other random tales were shared in Twitterland, including the fact that Stephen Moffat is the coolest dad in the world. At least to this dork.
You can click through to see all of the old posts. Everything is back together. For those of you who have logins and write, your logins from a week ago will work. Please write some posts! Botswana and Grand Inquisitor have some ideas.
We’re not sure that the site won’t crash today, but with the new speedy theme, and a whole bunch of database and WordPress hacking, hopefully we’ll be okay. If we do, you’ll have a site to post to soon after we notice it crashing. Some of the opens from the last week had broken index files and I really don’t want to go out of my way to bring them up again, at least right now. Otherwise everything should be okay.
Thanks everybody. We’re trying to get the site stable so we can bring you some fun things to kill time with. Your boss is going to hate us.
Part One: Android Basics
As Android becomes more and more popular, people are increasingly looking for advice on which phones to buy, which apps to download, and what settings to use to optimize their Android experience. Lucky for you guys, I’m here to help. I’ve had my Android phone (a Verizon Droid Incredible) for almost a year now, and I’ve done just about everything you can do to one.
Ok, everything is fixed in terms of the updates I needed to do to wordpress. We’re back to normal. If you’re reading this, you either added a line to your hosts file or your DNS propagated quickly and you have a good ISP.
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Greetings comrades. I come to you tonight to humbly ask your assistance in our effort to win The Internet. As you all know, we have experienced a pretty amazing transformation in the last few months and our humble collective has turned into the beginnings of a Dictatorship of the Internet Proletariat. No longer mere peasants; we have taken control of the means of production.
However, our battle has just begun and it is time for our armies to grow. For this to happen I need your help. As you may have noticed, we have added some new editors and moderators in the last couple of weeks in an effort to improve the quality of the site. Now that we are making that effort, we need to find a way to get the word out about the great stuff going on here. For this I need a few volunteers to be part of the Crasstalk Ministry of Propaganda.
The CMP will be charged with getting Crasstalk content out to other places on the web. This includes the social media platforms we already use, but we are also looking for some really creative ideas about getting the word out about the community here. We actually have some really interesting stuff here in our little web oasis, but we need to find ways to show it off to the rest of the world. I know that many of you are smart and innovative thinkers and we would really love to have your assistance as we continue to grow and shape the site.
If you are interested in helping out please send an email to [email protected]. If anyone has suggestions or ideas for promoting Crasstalk please put them in the comments so we can get some ideas rolling.
As always, it is an honor to serve with you.
Well hello again Crasstalk friends! I hope your weekend was pleasant, productive, or at least fun and that you’re easing into your week. It seems our faithful Crasstalk bretheren were among some of the most entertaining content of the Twitterverse over the weekend, so let’s recap, shall we?
Boobookitteh has a question:
Our own leniribbons brings up a good point:
I don’t know who this guy is, but this entertained me.
Patton Oswalt is actually pretty funny. I had no idea until Twitter.
Once more, Death Star PR comes through.
Simon Pegg witnesses a mother killing her child’s dream. A moment, please:
Men, please don’t try this at home:
This Julius Sharpe guy is a writer for Family Guy and my latest Twitter followee:
That’s all for now, ladies and gents. If you know of an awesome member of the Twitterverse, please let me know. In the meantime, keep Tweeting, bitches!
Let’s say that you’re tired of cable television. You’re tired of paying for the privilege of having 20 channels of reality shows, 40 sports channels, a music channel that barely features music, a learning channel that’s more creepy than educational, and 60 more channels you’ve never watched (Since when did we get Filipino soap operas?). You’re aware most of what you watch is online but sitting at your computer and watching TV isn’t a concession you’re willing to make. That’s when you stumble across 4 letters: HTPC
The Home Theater Personal Computer is computer specifically optimized for viewing TV shows and movies from your actual television set. They are usually a lot smaller and quieter than your usual desktop rig and usually run software that make finding your shows a snap. There are plenty of articles that will tell you how to build your very own HTPC and some even claim to be for the budget conscious. But what if you’re budget is non-existent or you just don’t want another box crowding your TV stand/entertainment center/stolen milk crates or you’re just a total cheap ass? What is wrong with using the computer you already have? Well, the answer to that my friend is: Nothing. You can still enjoy internet TV from the same computer where spreadsheets, spam email and your porn collection live (now in 1080p and 3-D). All it takes is a few cables and a tiny, little, teensy-weensy bit of technical know-how. Before you take this route, let’s set the proper expectations for this project:
- This method will probably not get you HD-quality sound or picture. If you absolutely have to experience your TV in rich, 5.1 surround sound where you can hear every auditory detail or have such amazing picture quality that Admiral Adama’s face looks like the surface of a brown orange, you should probably just save up your money and get a dedicated HTPC. You will have to be willing to deal with pseudo-stereo sound and the occasional video stutter or any other “minor inconvenience”.
- All of the necessary components are available either at your local electronics store or online. You won’t have to void your warranty, fabricate anything or seek out anything obscure which brings me to the next point.
- It’s fairly simple. If you can hook up your cable box or at least have a basic understanding of what’s happening behind your computer, you should have no problem getting things working.
Step 1: Gather Your Equipment
Obviously, you’ll need your existing computer and a TV but there are cables and connectors to consider. Now, depending on your level of frugality, it is entirely possible to spend less on this set up than you would on a good 12 pack of beer. All of the components mentioned here are available through Amazon but don’t be afraid to hit up your local Radio Shack, Fry’s Electronics or any other A/V or computer supply store.
- Your computer doesn’t have to be the latest or greatest. For reference, here are my rig’s basic specs:
- AMD Athlon 64 3500+
- Diamond ATI Radeon x1550
- On Board Audio
- Windows XP or Vista – Media Center Edition is preferred
- 3GB RAM
As you can see, it’s a few generations behind the times. It’s not an antique by any means but it’s not going to play Crysis. Not even the first one. However, it will play video just fine and that’s what matters.
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This VGA splitter features 2 female ends and 1 male end When it comes to your television, things will be a lot easier and a bit more enjoyable if you have one that comes with a VGA connection built in and fortunately a lot of modern flat panels do. However, if you don’t have a VGA connection on your TV, you can find VGA to S-Video, component or HDMI connectors on Amazon for under $5.
- Video cable – In order to get the picture from your computer, you need at least a VGA cable. These come in lengths ranging from 6ft to 25ft (and longer if you look hard enough). 15ft varieties can be found for under $10 online. Additionally, if you want to avoid the hassle of switching connections from your monitor to TV and back, you’ll VGA splitter (1 male/2 female).
VGA cable comes in lengths from 6ft to 25ft. - Audio cable – sound cards typically have 3.5mm jacks for easy use of headphone and desktop speakers. To get that piped into your TV or A/V receiver you’ll need a length of 3.5mm extension cable and a 3.5mm to RCA splitter. Depending on your set up you may have to augment this with additional extensions or adapters. Just be aware that quality might suffer a bit. You could also potentially need a small 3.5mm splitter if you want to use your desktop speakers from time to time.
Step 2: Installation and Setup
As always, make sure all electronics involved are turned off before you begin. In truth, finding all of the components is the hardest part as actually connecting them is pretty self-explanatory. Simply, disconnect your monitor and speakers from the back of your PC and connect the splitters. Then reconnect your monitor and speakers to the splitters and attach your extension cables to the other end. Attach those to the appropriate ports at the back of your television. I happen to have an A/V receiver so my audio cables were attached to an open connection there. Now you’re connected. It’s that simple.
Setting up your TV and Computer to play together should be just as easy. Power both of them up and set your TV display to PC or RGB (consult your manual for details), adjust your receiver if applicable and you’re probably ready to go. There is a chance that what you see on the TV will be slightly distorted and if that’s the case, you may need to alter the resolution on your PC. I have found that in my particular case, 1440×900 works best.
Step 3: Enjoy
Congratulations! You have now joined the ranks of those who have decided to almost throw off the shackles of cable (You still need that High-Speed Internet, don’t you?). Now you can jump on YouTube and watch Toddler Metal or catch up on episodes of The Biggest Loser with Hulu. Next time, we’ll explore your options for HTPC software, which makes finding all of your shows much easier.
To make things even easier remote
If you have a modern laptop with a built in HDMI port then all of this just boils down to connecting to the HDMI port on your HDTV.
The magic of Twitter is that it gives us regular folks a chance to see into the randomized musings and utterly mundane details of celebrities and, well, everyone else, filter-free. Unleashed from the restraints of their PR flack and armed with a cell phone, famous folks can tell us what they had for lunch, or when they pick up their dry-cleaning. Just kidding. Rich people have someone do that for them. Otherwise, they might be forced to mingle with people who work for a living.
The thing with Twitter is that it’s moved beyond real people. Fictional characters have Twitter accounts now (more on that in a second). Hell, celebrities make up accounts for their dogs, which is dumb. I’m looking at you, Ice-T. For crying out loud, I have friends who set up an account for their 6 month old. If you guys have that kind of free time, perhaps you should look into doing something useful, like teaching the kid Chinese, or, better, picking up my dry cleaning.
Or, if you want to spend that much time on Twitter, try checking out the accounts of people who might actually have something interesting to say, like Lord Voldemort, who gives us some advice on how to make it through the weekend:
Seth McFarlane gives a new perspective on the Charlie Sheen situation:
um…. maybe?
Continuing on the Charlie Sheen track, the always awesome George Takei has his own ideas;
In another area of the entertainment industry, Roger Ebert gives his opinion on the Atlas Shrugged movie:
NPR, as always, is quite servicey:
When I was in college I took a stand-up comedy class. I honestly think it was a humanities course and not an elective, but I can’t be sure – it was many years ago.
In any case, our professor told us that even if your joke elicits a groan, it’s still a decent joke. My professor was also about 120 years old, so take that however you wish. Regardless, I think this may fall somewhere in the groan-worthy category.
And even more groan-worthy (with a side of giggle), Albert Brooks delivers:
Writer Seth Madej, friend of the author, gives tips on how to sound smart at parties (follow this guy, he’s entertaining):
This Twitter account is not for the religiously sensitive. For the rest of us – hilarious (and true!).
Death Star PR is always full of good questions:
And finally, Seth McFarlane again, retweeting a nonexistent Twitter account that should actually exist:
Right on, Seth.
Anyway, enjoy, and I’ll try to keep up on this the best I can. In the meantime, if you want to recommend some entertaining people to follow on Twitter, please do!